Video: L'Isle-Verte a 'terrible tragedy', Pauline Marois says

Philip Authier, THE GAZETTE01.25.2014

Quebec Premier Pauline Marois speaks to reporters after visiting the scene of the fatal Residence du Havre seniors home fire in L’Isle-Verte. Sunday January 26, 2014. At left is L’Isle-Verte Mayor Ursule Thériault.John Mahoney
/ The Gazette

Quebec Premier Pauline Marois, right, talks with local officials including Mayor Ursule Thériault, second from left, after visiting the scene of the fatal Residence du Havre seniors home fire in L’Isle-Verte, QC. Sunday January 26, 2014.John Mahoney
/ The Gazette

Ursule Theriault, mayor of L’Isle-Verte arrives for a memorial mass for the victims of the fatal fire at the Résidence du Havre seniors home in L’Isle-Verte Sunday Jan. 26, 2014.John Mahoney
/ The Gazette

People leave a memorial mass for the victims of the fatal fire at the Résidence du Havre seniors home in L’Isle-Verte Sunday Jan. 26, 2014.John Mahoney
/ The Gazette

Roch Bernier, owner of the Résidence du Havre seniors home leaves a memorial mass for the victims of the fatal fire in L’Isle-Verte with an unidentified woman on Sunday Jan. 26, 2014.John Mahoney
/ The Gazette

A man hugs the doorman at St. Jean Baptist de L’Isle Verte church following a memorial mass for the victims of the fatal fire at the Résidence du Havre seniors’ home in L’Isle-Verte Sunday Jan. 26, 2014.John Mahoney
/ The Gazette

People leave a commemorative service for victims of last week’s fatal fire at a seniors residence, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2014 in L’Isle-VerteRyan Remiorz
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

A couple of women shield an older woman from the wind and cold as they arrive for memorial mass for the victims of the fatal fire at the Résidence du Havre seniors home in L’Isle-Verte Sunday Jan. 26, 2014.John Mahoney
/ The Gazette

Quebec Liberal Party leader Philippe Couillard, left, and Jean D’Amour, Liberal MNA for the area arrive for a memorial mass for the victims of the fatal fire at the Résidence du Havre seniors home in L’Isle-Verte Sunday Jan. 26, 2014.John Mahoney
/ The Gazette

A woman, holding a picture of her husband who died in last week’s seniors residence fire, arrives for a commemorative service for the victims, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2014 in L’Isle-VerteRyan Remiorz
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

Roch Bernier, owner of the Résidence du Havre seniors home makes a statement to reporters after a memorial mass for the victims of the fatal fire in L’Isle-Verte, Sunday Jan. 26, 2014.John Mahoney
/ The Gazette

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L’ISLE-VERTE — If the norms in private residences need to be tightened up to protect seniors they will be, Premier Pauline Marois said after touring the scene of the Résidence du Havre fire, which she described as a “terrible tragedy.”

As the mood in this city of 1,400 shifted from horror to mourning — St-Jean-Baptiste l’Isle-Verte church was full on Sunday for a memorial mass — crews resumed their slow meticulous search for bodies entombed, in some cases, in 60 centimetres of ice.

The search was briefly suspended Sunday morning as a blizzard with fierce winds battered the town. But Sunday afternoon, crews continued probing the ice as hundreds of town residents braved the weather to go to church.

“At last, we are together,” a parish volunteer said welcoming the crowd to the mass, attended by Marois, Liberal leader Philippe Couillard and most residents.

“Normally, I am a person who smiles a lot,” L’Isle-Verte Mayor Ursule Theriault said later. “This afternoon, I did not.”

Just before 5 p.m., Sûreté du Québec Lt. Guy Lapointe provided an update on the search. The number of confirmed deaths remains unchanged at 10, with 22 people still missing.

Earlier, the Quebec coroner added a third name to the list of those whose remains have been identified: Louis-Philippe Roy, 89.

On Saturday, Juliette Saindon, 95, and Marie-Laureat Dubé, 82, were confirmed as victims.

Lapointe, however, insisted it was not a lost day because searchers were able to melt more ice using newly arrived ice melting equipment, the same kind used to de-ice ships.

Despite the bitter weather conditions, he said search team morale remains good, with workers determined to give families of the deceased some closure.

On Saturday, in a moment of candour, Lapointe was forced to admit the obvious as the work dragged on.

“I think we can all agree here today that the ... people who are still missing, I think we can assume the worst,” he said.

As the weekend ended, however, questions remained — especially about what could have caused a fire that wiped out a large segment of one generation in one cruel blow.

SQ investigators have now interviewed 100 people about the fire, including employees of the residence.

But the rumour mill is running out of control.

Police moved rapidly to play down news reports the fire was sparked by a resident smoking in a second-floor apartment.

Several media reported the story based on unidentified sources. The Journal de Montréal interviewed a nightwatchman, Bruno Bélanger, who said he warned a resident, who had wanted to smoke that he could not go outside.

By Sunday, the story had taken on a name, Paul Étienne Michaud, 96, who vanished in the fire. A lifelong heavy smoker, Michaud was known to have a stubborn streak and had been caught a few times lighting up in his apartment even after the residence banned smoking a few years ago. His son, Jean-André Michaud, 68, told The Canadian Press his father even had a makeshift smoking shack, an old vehicle, parked outside and would puff away there.

But after Jean-André Michaud faced questions from police investigators about his father’s smoking habits, it sparked rumours in this close-knit community that his dad started the fire.

“My father smoked a bit, but would he get up in the middle of the night to go for a smoke?” he said. “No, it’s impossible … it would be a bitter pill to swallow to start saying, ‘Look, your father started the fire.’ ”

“It’s one hypothesis among many,” Lapointe said refusing to confirm anything. “News reports and police investigations are two different things.”

“It’s rumour,” added SQ Lt. Michel Brunet. “Be careful when you hear a rumour like this. We’re still working, we have to meet a lot of witnesses.

“We’re trying to find where the fire started and why the fire started. It could be cigarettes, it could be a small heater, it could be an electrical problem.

“We have to be 100 per cent sure.”

On Sunday, The Gazette asked both Lapointe and the mayor whether they were worried about social tensions as a result of such finger-pointing.

Theriault insisted everything in her city is under control.

“My advice to people regarding that is take the information from the official services,” Lapointe said.

Asked about the efficiency of the fire department’s response, L’Isle-Verte fire chief Yvan Charron insisted a hook-and-ladder vehicle — which the small 18-man volunteer fire department here does not have — would not have made any difference in the death toll.

Charron also spoke openly about the things he and his team — mostly dairy farmers — are going through.

“Nobody is ever prepared for this because we don’t have this every day or even every year,” Charron said. “We do drills, we practice … but never big like this.

“You see this elsewhere and say, ‘I hope that never happens here.’ ”

He said his crew found it hard, but they wanted to help so badly they had to be ordered off the job to go and get some rest.

“After a job like this, even if you go to bed, you don’t sleep,” Charron said. “You don’t sleep right away because you wonder what’s going to happen, what are we doing tomorrow, you re-analyze everything.”

Meanwhile, social workers have started knocking on doors offering help and counselling. Today, more social workers will be on-hand when classes resume in the elementary school.

If there was any good news here at all this weekend it was word the Red Cross had raised — in less than 24 hours — $200,000 for the 20 surviving members of the home.

With an average age of 85 — one victim was three months short of her 100th birthday — the needs are basic: eyeglasses, dentures, hearing aides, walkers, wheelchairs.

Later, the Red Cross said it would also subsidize travel for the children of survivors who live far away.

Arriving at 11:30 a.m. in the raging blizzard and just off a flight from Davos, Switzerland, Marois immediately was driven into the security perimeter to see first-hand the catastrophe.

And she expressed the same frustration as the families of the dead over the difficulties searchers are having recovering the remaining 22 bodies.

“Not being able to have access to the bodies probably increases their pain and suffering,” Marois told reporters huddled around her.

“If I am here today it is to again express my solidarity and deepest sympathies to the affected families. In moments like this, only empathy can help families a bit because, for the rest, there’s not much to do except to say we understand their pain and loss.

“If I am here it is because I want to express my solidarity to the families who are affected by this terrible tragedy.”

After the visit, Marois immediately sat down over a coffee with Mayor Theriault.

“It’s with great sadness that I find myself here today,” Marois told a news conference later, promising the municipality the government’s full support.

Marois noted that Public Security Minister Stéphane Bergeron, along with Health Minister Réjean Hébert and the Régie du bâtiment, had already set up a committee to look into the safety of private senior’s homes.

“It was already a concern of the government,” Marois said.

Only the new part of the Résidence du Havre had sprinklers. The older part of the building is what collapsed, killing residents. Yet the building conformed to the current government norms and, in a recent practice fire drill, managed to get everybody out in 10 minutes.

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